Message from the Chair of WDHD 2011

Basing on UNICEF/WHO (2009) "Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhea. Today, only 39 per cent of children with diarrhea in developing countries receive the recommended treatment, and limited trend data suggest that there has been little progress since 2000." Enteric infections, however, are not only occurring only in developing countries. In the United States it is estimated that children less than 5 years old will have 2.2 episodes of diarrhea per year, in those above the age of 16 years this rate is still 1.7. German sources describe that one third of the total population will have diarrhea at least once annually. There were some 16,000 deaths from diarrhea recorded in Europe in 2002. Lastly, travelers originating in industrialized countries must expect an incidence rate of travelers’ diarrhea exceeding 20%, sometimes even exceeding 50%, during a two weeks’ stay in a developing country...